Stories Of Greatness

A successful merchant came before the Sanzer Rav, Rav Chaim Halberstam zt”l, with a complaint. For years, his store had been bustling with customers and he did quite well in business. Now, however, another Jew came along and opened a competing business right near his. The competitor sold new, fashionable merchandise at lower prices, and literally took over the market. Now, his store is practically empty, and his source of livelihood is shattered.

At a wedding, Rabbi Yisrael Gettinger, Rav of Congregation Bnei Torah of Indianapolis, related the following story to Rabbi Hillel Goldberg. Between dances, he leaned over the salad and asked, “Do you follow football? Let me tell you a story.”

The following story is about a young boy who understands the meaning of nosei b’ol chaveiro – “shouldering the burden of a fellow Jew.” What is truly inspiring is how this boy did what he did and who he did it for.

The Midrash Rabbah famously cites the pasuk from T’hilim (40:5): “Praiseworthy is the man who placed his trust in Hashem and did not turn to the arrogant.” The Midrash comments as follows: “Praiseworthy is the man who placed his trust in Hashem” – This refers to Yosef; “and did not turn to the arrogant” – Because Yosef said to Pharaoh’s chief butler (at the end of last week’s parshah), “If only you would think of me...and mention me,” Yosef had to remain in prison an additional two years. At times, a person may be put in a situation where he clearly sees that Hashem is his only true provider. He must face that reality with pure faith and then he will be rewarded with salvation.

Concern for others and the fear of hurting another individual’s feelings were trademark qualities of the Rosh Yeshivah of Chevron, R’ Simcha Zissel Broide zt”l. He embodied the attributes of Yosef HaTzaddik who was a “king who ruled the regiment” of his limbs and emotions and made them do the will of Hashem. It wasn’t just the way he acted with respect to his peers, fellow Roshei Yeshivos and other honorable people in all walks of society. R’ Simcha Zissel remained exactly the same in relation to his talmidim in the yeshivah as well.

Natan (Anatoli) Sharansky was arrested in 1977 for his activism: his insistence on the right of Russian Jews to make aliyah to Israel. However, he was accused of the much more serious crime of treason: for spying for the United States. He sat in prison from 1977 to 1986, including eight years in a Soviet prison camp in Siberia. After continuous public protest in the West, spearheaded by his wife Avital, Natan Sharansky was released in a spy exchange between the US and the USSR in 1986. After making aliyah and establishing a Russian immigrant party in 1996, he became Israeli Minister of Industry and Trade and later of the Interior. His memoirs of the Soviet period are filled with sparkling anecdotes about the power of the few against the many, the power that derives from “fearing no evil” and laughing in the face of oppression. The phrase “Fear no evil” is taken from the little Sefer T’hilim, which he carried with him through his long imprisonment.